For iPod, iPod (Scroll Wheel), and iPod (Touch Wheel), hold the 'Menu' and 'Play/Pause' buttons down together until the Apple logo shows up. For iPod mini and iPod (Click Wheel) hold 'Menu' and 'Select.' This won't erase any songs on your iPod so it's ok to do.

Firewire Card: Most firewire cards will do the trick. Certain chipsets are preferred by advanced users. Personal experience has shown me problems with the firewire port of audigy sounds cards (by Creative). Installation of such devices is easy and usually only requires an empty PCI port (refer to your motherboard documentation). (Ed. note: Apple now has a list of Firewire cards that it recommends.)

InterfaceI recommend EphPod. It has a nice interface it works relatively well and its bugs are remedied by frequent updates. Best of all it is freeware. Other options are Xplay and MediaCenter9 and Windows iTunes. The former two are pay options with trial downloads available.

MP3 Production/RippingI use CDex. It uses the LAME (3.92/3.93) engine to produce mp3s of relatively good quality. Superior to MMJB. Purests will argue but that is not for this discussion. The fact remains it will provide tagged mp3s that are free of pops, clicks and hissing.

M4A, M4P, AAC.There is a lot of noise being made by Apple's adoption of AAC. AAC is mentioned here only as far as to confirm it functions on Windows iPods with firmware 1.3 (2nd generation) or 2.1 (3rd generation).